Spring Lake

Spring Lake Golf Club’s origins revolve around the work of three primary architects. The first was from Willie Norton, a relative unknown who served as the head professional after emigrating from Prestwick. He didn’t have ideal circumstances, pressured to cram nine holes on just 18 acres.

The course decided to add another 100 acres prior to expanding to 18 holes, handing the design reins over to George Thomas, for whom the club was only the third design of his legendary career. His design, however, would be renovated just six years later by another iconic architect — A.W. Tillinghast — when Spring Lake decided that the current 6,000-yard yardage wasn’t satisfactory for modern competitive golf.

Tillie took the route to 6,400 yards, which — as of 1918 — was one of the longest courses in the country. An irony from that event was that Tillinghast actually shortened the course’s most famous hole; although the latter Philadelphia architect was more known for creating par five monsters than most, Thomas set the standard at Spring Lake by creating a 600-yard third hole during 1911. Tillinghast brought it back to 525 yards. To this day, the hole still plays more than 50 yards shorter than as Thomas had intended.